When you need to get things off your chest.

What is Fascism?

Racist, fascist, homophobe! These terms have been thrown about lately, and seemingly at everyone and everything. You hear these terms in chants, in the news, and on social media sites. You would think that such words wouldn’t be used so lightly, given their meaning. But, perhaps, people no longer know what a word like fascist actually means.

Knowing now how a fascist is literally defined, can it be applied to people like President Donald Trump and Ben Shapiro? I would say not. If in fact they were fascists, they would be silencing all of those who oppose them with brutal force.

So why are these hateful epithets thrown in their direction? Some would say it is to silence them. If this is the case, and these hateful expressions are used to silence an opposing view, that would in fact make their accusers the fascists.

I know many of you would say that this isn’t true. That they are just pointing out evil where it lives. But let me remind you of Hitler and his Nazi party. He used tactics such as these to silence his opposition. Least we forget the propagandized drawings of evil Jews plastered on every street corner.

Painting someone else to be the bad guy so their ideas cannot be expressed is a Nazi tactic. So, instead of shutting down opposition, shouldn’t we instead give it a platform? Isn’t part of the American Dream to have the ability to express yourself freely without fear of retribution? If not, if speech you don’t agree with is deemed hate speech, then this is no longer America; it’s a fascist state.